Entrapped in his obsessions and compulsions, he eventually became the perfect American weirdo--all silences and unclipped toenails. But before that, Howard Hughes, at least as Martin Scorsese sees him, was the perfect American, period. He was rich. He was romantic. He was fearless. And as an inventor and entrepreneur, he was one of the past century's great visionaries. It is this Hughes, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who dominates The Aviator--recklessly crashing planes and cars, heedlessly wooing Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett), among others.